LIBERAL DEMOCRACY AND MINORITY RIGHTS

[jamahir]

The left and particularly the Congress is certainly not blameless for the current scenario and are responsible for creating the space for majoritarianism.

as a side point...

as a self-declared representative of the left on pdf ( ), i do agree about the failure of the indian left... the indian left was formally established in 1921 and yet did not make itself enough organized or ambitious to either prevent the partition or achieve national power in the almost seven decades after 1947... little afghanistan was a socialist society for a few years until brought down nato conspiracy, but those few years should have inspired the indian left to be more active ( with the exception of the naxalites )... the continual rise of the right-wing, whether the sangh or the tableeghi jamaat, is really a function of the disunity of the left... the congress i discount in the discussion because they never presented a hardcore shield against the right-wing from all communities and many times worked with the right against the left.

Ironically enough, this is exactly the article was intended to preach. At any cost, to deter a majoritarian rule and to protect the basic rights of the minorities,especially in countries like India and Pakistan. A government won by numbers should not and must not be given power to dictate a policy that is not accepted by those who are numerically inferior. Gorki was just pointing out the visible flaws of Indian democracy, not trumpeting the excellence of western democracy.

got your point.

then again, we in south asia ( india, in our particular focus ) should have either evolved a more simpler political system or adopted one later... you pointed to "checks and balances" provided by the american constitution but obviously it hasn't worked because usa is a society that has homeless and unequals, even if lesser than india.

which is why i keep preaching about the party-less "authority of the people" decentralized system provided by the "third universal theory" where the focus is on collective welfare and achieving a easy life.